Death of Kathryn Murphy Keane, 16 May 1937

From the Tuesday 18 May 1937 issue of the Brooklyn Eagle, via Fulton History:Kathryn Murphy Keane was - I'm fairly certain - the daughter of Mary Ann Toner and Thomas Murphy. Her siblings were Annie Murphy Dowd (at whose house Kathryn died), Thomas Murphy (who appears to have died prior to 1937, since he's not listed as a survivor here), and John Murphy. She married William R. Keane, and they had 1 daughter, Margaret Keane, who, according to Betty and John, became an Ursuline nun and died of cancer in the 1990s.

What's going on with the Murphys?

I've started looking into the Murphy family recently. I'd always more or less avoided them, since I had scant information on their names and relationships and, well, because their name was Murphy. I'm don't have those mad skillz yet. But earlier this week (yes, when I still had finals to write - don't judge!), I thought I'd do some searching.

Two Murphy boys - John and Thomas - lived with the Mulvaneys in 1905 and 1910, listed as their nephews. Betty and John told me that they were the children of one of Julia's sisters, but they didn't know which sister.

Some time ago, I found a Brooklyn Eagle notice of the "Verona Coterie," which a Mary Toner and a Thomas Murphy attended together in 1877:

VERONA COTERIE

Last evening the Verona Coterie held another

of their select reunions at the residence of

their President, Mr. William Gregg, corner of Van

Brunt and Verona streets. It was in every respect

an enjoyable affair, and, reflected 'great

credit upon the management. Among those present,

were Mr. John Curran, Mr. Thomas Sheridan

Mr. Michael Coffey, Mr. Thomas Converry and Miss

Mary Hayes, Mr. James Bond and .Miss Mary Idston,

Mr. James Ennls and Miss Bella Sweeney, Mr.

John McAuliffe and Miss Elizabeth Curran, Mr.

Thomas Murphy and Miss Mary Toner, Mr. Frank

Woods and Miss Jenny Briordy, Mr. James Downey

and wife. Captain Harris and Wife and Mr. James

Roche and lady. The officers of the Association

are; President, Mr. William Gregg; Vice President,

Mr. John Devoy; Recording Secretary, Mr.. James

Bona.; Treasurer, Mr. Thomas Converry.

Combined with the fact that I already knew the destinies of all of Julia's other sisters (except for the perhaps apocryphal Judith), I became increasingly convinced of the possibility that Thomas and John's mother was Julia's sister Mary Ann and that their father was Thomas Murphy.

Good, uncommon, easy to find names, those. Mary and Thomas Murphy! Argh.

But I thought I'd try. First I looked for a Mary (Ann) and Thomas Murphy in the 1892 NYS Census. I'd looked briefly in 1900 before, with no luck, but I hadn't tried systematically searching. In 1892, the most promising result was the one I posted last week. The family was Thomas and Mary A. Murphy, and their children Kate, Any, and John.

I took that information and looked for the family again in the 1900 Census. Looking for Mary (Ann) and Thomas Murphy had no results, until I started looking for their kids, putting in only one of their parents names at a time. I finally got a hit when looking for Thomas Murphy, with mother Mary. It seemed Thomas Murphy Sr. had died in the previous 8 years.

The family is Mary, a widow, aged 45, born in March of 1855 (Mary Ann Toner was actually born 3 March 1852); Catherine, 19, born in April of 1881; Annie, 13, born in September 1887; John, 11, born in April 1889; and, this time, Thomas, 6, born in March of 1894. Mary has given birth to either 4 or 5 other children who are no longer living; the column "mother of how many children" has either an 8 or a 9 in it. No one in the family appears to be employed. This is incorrect, as we'll soon see. The family lives at 306 Van Brunt St.

Yes, that's right. Just a block from the Mulvaneys at 270 Van Brunt! (I'm having a difficult time embedding a Google map, but if you try this link, you'll see just how close the two really are.)

After finding the address of the Mulvaneys, I searched through the Brooklyn Eagle at the Fulton History website. I was hoping to find a death notice for Thomas, and maybe one for Mary as well, but I found something else entirely. Well, not quite something else entirely. I still found death notices, but they belonged to other people! Thomas Murphy at 306 Van Brunt Street was an undertaker! (Some of those news items about deaths and funerals were quite interesting. I'd like to feature some of them here, soon, but the specifics of those cases aren't particularly relevant to finding out about the Murphys.)

What I did next was to search the NYTimes archive for "306 Van Brunt" and I found Thomas Murphy, in the 1 June 1898 death notices. His death had been reported 31 May (that's my birthday!) and he'd died 28 May.

Then I Googled for "306 Van Brunt" and "undertaker," hoping I'd find some information about the business or about Thomas Murphy. After all, part of the reason I'd thought it credible that these Murphys were our Murphys was that in the original 1892 NYS Census, Thomas Murphy had been listed as a coachman, and Mary Ann's brother William had been a "stableman" when he died and had, some years earlier, been involved in an accident while driving a coach that was "the property of Mr. Murphy of South Brooklyn." I was hoping to find a reference to the undertaker "who used to be a coachman" or some such, though I knew it was unlikely.

What I found was not at all what I'd expected. The 1899 edition of Trow's Business Directory for Brooklyn lists an undertaker at 306 Van Brunt Street, sure, but it's not Thomas. Thomas has been dead for a year. Mary is the undertaker.

How cool is that? I did a little googling, and found that, while female undertakers weren't common in the 19th century, it was one of few of the professions that didn't actively exclude women.

And wait a sec. . .

Hadn't I already written off the possibility of female undertakers somewhere?

On William Toner's death certificate, my first impulse had been that the undertaker listed as "Mrs. Thomas Murphy," but I had written that off as being improbable. It appears I was wrong.

And when I went back to check, I realized that the "Mrs. Thomas Murphy" who was the undertaker when he died gave an address of 306 Van Brunt Street! In addition, I found reference to the idea that, at least early on, female undertakers were only allowed to handle the bodies of women and children. I don't know whether that was still applicable around the turn of the century, but the fact is that William Toner wasn't a woman or a child. He was a grown man. How could Mrs. Thomas Murphy be in charge of the body . . . unless they were related? I've been assuming all along that they were, but I think this is further evidence.

Sometime between this 1900 US Census and the 1905 NYS Census, the Murphy boys went to live with their Aunt Julia and Uncle Patrick Mulvaney. I don't know whether Mary died - I haven't found any evidence that she did, but I also haven't looked very hard. Mary Murphys are a dime a dozen, and several dozen of them died between 1900 and 1905, and many more dozen of them appeared in the Eagle in that time period. It's possible, of course, that the Murphys went to live with the Mulvaneys for some reason other than the death of their mother.

I still have to find out what happened to Mary Ann, and hopefully what happened to the Murphy children as they grew up. But this is a pretty good start, with my only bone of contention being the pesky change from coachman to undertaker during the mid-1890s.

Family of Mary Ann and Thomas Murphy in the 1892 NYS Census

In the second column of this 1892 NYS Census, you'll find a Murphy family that I suspect -might- be the family of Mary Ann Toner, sister of Julia Toner Mulvaney and potentially the mother of John and Thomas Murphy, who were partially raised by the Mulvaneys. The head of the family is listed as Thomas Murphy, 37, Irish-born but a US citizen, and a coachman. If you recall, a young Mary Ann Toner attended a party with a Thomas Murphy in 1877. His wife, Mary A(nn), is 34, and US-born. According to this she was born around 1858; Mary Ann Toner was born around 1852. Their children are Kate, age 10; Any, age 5; and John, age 3.

John is exactly the right age for the John Murphy who was raised by the Mulvaneys.

According to Betty and John, the Murphy brothers had two older sisters, one of them named Annie. I'm hoping that Any is Annie and not Amy, or else this is probably the wrong family. Amy, while it sounds to my ear like a very modern name, was actually the 120th most popular name in America in 1887, the year this "Any" would have been born. (The supposed modernity of Amy comes from its extreme popularity in the 1970s, when it was the #2 most popular name for 4 years running.) Annie, of course, was at #12 in 1887, and Ann and Anne were also very popular, at 124 and 121, respectively - the real popularity of the name is disguised by the fact that the two variant spellings were almost equally popular, making the name that sounds like "Ann" twice as popular as the rankings would suggest. Though the ranking of Amy is similar to those of both Ann and Anne, there were 251 babies named Amy in 1887, and 488 named either Ann or Anne, which is more in line with the numbers one would expect of a name ranked in the 70s in that year. Add in Anna at #2 (4,227 births) and Annie at #12 (1,844 births) means Ann- names were much more popular than Amy, and more likely to be encountered when looking at this sort of demographic data.* But "Any" could still be Amy, and, as much as I want this to be the right family, I do think that "Any" is more likely to be a "typo" for Amy than for Annie.

So on the name count, I'm not committed. Is "Any" Murphy our Annie Murphy Dowd? Dunno.

Something I do find particularly interesting, and potentially indicative of this being the right family, is Thomas Murphy's occupation. He's listed as being a coachman. As you'll recall, William Toner's death certificate listed him as a stableman, and in 1889, a news item referred to a William Toner driving a coach that was "the property of Mr. Murphy, of South Brooklyn." More than anything, the occupation - and the right birthdate for John - makes me think that these are our Murphys, that Mary A. is Mary Ann Toner Murphy, and that William Toner was working for his brother-in-law when he was involved in that accident.

*Source for name data: The Social Security Administration: http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/

William Toner's Death Certificate, January 31, 1899

When I ordered William Toner's death certificate, I hoped that there would be some indication on it of what his life had looked like since we'd last seen him on the 1870 census. Did he ever marry and have children, or was the Toner name not continued when he and Samuel both died childless? I've encountered a handful of relatives who don't bear the Toner name - will we ever meet one who does?

It looks like we will not. William is listed as "Single." But there are any number of interesting facts - or potential facts - on here, beyond his lack of progeny.

A lot of the certificate is very faded and difficult to read, but we'll do our best.

William Toner was sick for about a month, attended by his doctor from January 5-30, 1899, and he died at about 6am on January 31. He was buried on February 3 at Holy Cross. His doctor's name is nearly illegible (could it be "Archibald Murray"?), but his undertaker's name is (almost) not.

Undertaker: [illegible] Thos. Murphy

It almost looks like it read "Mrs. Thomas Murphy, but I find that highly unlikely. Maybe "Chas. Thos. Murphy"?

Regardless - Thomas Murphy? Doesn't William Toner have a probable brother-in-law - his sister Mary Ann's probable husband - named Thomas Murphy? Could John and Thomas Murphy's father have been an undertaker? Maybe?

Besides that - William is listed as 34 years old, which can't be correct - I believe he was about a year old in 1860, which makes him closer to 40 than 34, but that's not too far off. He's white, he's single, he was born in the US, his parents are, of course, Richard Toner and Mary Cullen Toner.

William's occupation is given as "stableman." That gives me an idea - just a suggestion - that this article from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, listing William Toner as the driver of a coach involved in an accident really did refer to our William Toner. Of course, that article, too, referenced a Mr. Murphy. Maybe William just really liked guys named Murphy. I have my doubts about whether the undertaker was also the guy who owned the cab company was also the brother-in-law, but you never know.

William died at St. Peter's Hospital, of Phthisis Pulmonalis, aka Tuberculosis, with "Exhaustion" listed as an indirect cause of death.

William Toner driving a cab?

So there I was on the Brooklyn Eagle, as I often am, searching various names and combinations of names and addresses to see if I come up with anything relevant, and I searched for William Toner, Julia's brother. William's not an unusual name, and neither is Toner, so I was not at all certain that any of the 3 results I got would be him. One was this, from February 24, 1889:

There's nothing in particular that makes me think that that it's our William Toner, until the very end. "The cab is the property of Mr. Murphy. . ." Now, Murphy's an even more common name, but it is the case that our William Toner had a brother-in-law [I think] named Thomas Murphy. Probably just a coincidence, but maybe something to think about.

Thomas Murphy and Mary Toner

Again, from the "Old Fulton Postcards" newspaper website, here's some information that I think sheds light on one more of Julia Toner Mulvaney's sisters. We know one married a man named Murphy, because their sons were living with the Mulvaneys in 1910. We didn't know which sister that was, though, Mary or Judith (though I do sometimes think that Judith is actually Julia - but that's neither here nor there). I've just come across, though, this news item about young people attending the Verona Coterie, in 1877, when Mary Toner would have been about 25 years old. She appears to have attended this dance accompanied by Thomas Murphy. Aw, courtship.

VERONA COTERIE
Last evening the Verona Coterie held another
of their select reunions at the residence of
their President, Mr. William Gregg, corner of Van
Brunt and Verona streets. It was in every respect
an enjoyable affair, and, reflected 'great
credit upon the management. Among those present,
were Mr. John Curran, Mr. Thomas Sheridan
Mr. Michael Coffey, Mr. Thomas Converry and Miss
Mary Hayes, Mr. James Bond and .Miss Mary Idston,
Mr. James Ennls and Miss Bella Sweeney, Mr.
John McAuliffe and Miss Elizabeth Curran, Mr.
Thomas Murphy and Miss Mary Toner, Mr. Frank
Woods and Miss Jenny Briordy, Mr. James Downey
and wife. Captain Harris and Wife and Mr. James
Roche and lady. The officers of the Association
are; President, Mr. William Gregg; Vice President,
Mr. John Devoy; Recording Secretary, Mr.. James
Bona.; Treasurer, Mr. Thomas Converry.

[emphasis mine]

It now looks like the fortunes of the Toner children were as follows:
Julia (1) - died of cholera at 16
Mary Ann - married Thomas Murphy, had 4 children, died before they were all grown
Samuel - died suddenly at age 18
Elizabeth - married Thomas Loughlin, had several children, was widowed, married Thomas Renehan, took in Willie Mulvaney for an unspecified period of time, died in 1925
Louisa - married Mr. Deegan, died in 1918
William - was a troublesome teen, cut school at least once, may have died around the turn of the century (that's the next death certificate on my list)
Judith - unknown
James Thomas - died of cholera in 1866, at age 6 or younger
Julia (2) - married Patrick Mulvaney, had numerous children, raised 5 to adulthood, died in 1938